Contact Details:

Mwele Ntuli Malecela

Mwele is Director of the Tanzania Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination Programmme, as well as Director of Research Coordination and Promotion of the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) Tanzania.

Mwele holds a BSc in Zoology from the University of Dar-es-Salaam and an MSc and PhD in Parasitology from the University of London (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine). Her area of specialization was the immunology of filarial evasion mechanisms.

Mwele has worked at the National Institute for Medical Research for over 20 years in a number of areas including lymphatic filariasis immune epidemiology, and health systems and policies. As Director for Research at NIMR, her main focus is on research capacity building, the translation of research into action, as well as the policy and practice of priority setting for health research.

In her role as Director of the National Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination Programme she brings her long research experience to efforts to eliminate filariasis, and she has run the national programme since its inception in 2000. She is well known for her role in advocacy campaigns that have raised the profile of the real extent of the problem in Tanzania.

Mwele has served on a number of international committees including the Technical Advisory Group of the Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis, the Mectizan Expert Committee and the advisory board of the Initiative on Public-Private Partnerships in Health (IPPPH).

Mwele is the Chair of the Representative Contact Group (RCG), a position which has ex-officio membership on the Executive Group. Mwele was initially elected to the Chair at the Fiji meeting in 2006 and was unanimously re-elected at the Tanzania, Arusha meeting in 2008.